You willingly and unquestioningly let go of your hard-earned money when you buy food. You don’t mind if you pay a little bit more because you know that quality costs more; this you naively assume base on what the package labels say. Not so fast consumers! These days, you need to double check the labels. There could be certain information there that you didn’t read the first time. You are not being remiss; it is just that “food fraud” has become more rampant these days.

Unfortunately, food fraud has extended to seafood. You can be buying tuna and paying for the price for said fish, but you can actually be getting escolar instead of tuna. Across America, about one-third of fish samples tested by Oceana, a nonprofit organization advocating ocean protection, were seen to be mislabeled. “For instance, 87 percent of fish sold as snapper was actually some other type of fish, and the USP found that monkfish was sometimes actually puffer fish, which can also cause poisoning.”

Thus, it is but logical that consumers seek ways to protect their rights. [Read more…]